SPORTS

H.S. SOCCER: Chester Co. wins with strong 2nd half

Michael Odom

The Chester County girls’ soccer team has had a roller coaster of a season with good wins and some bad losses.

The Eaglettes have been inconsistent at times with losses by five, six and eight goals against teams from West Tennessee.

On Tuesday, Chester County pulled together in the second half to come from behind to beat Sacred Heart 3-2 at St. Mary’s Field.

“I have been telling the girls that it is about what we want to do,” Chester County coach Jason Judd said. “When we want to, we can compete with anyone. We just go on vacation sometimes.”

Sacred Heart (8-2) was previously unbeaten by teams outside Memphis with the lone loss to St. George’s.

The Lady Knights also had a 2-1 halftime lead, which was the lead that district rival Lexington had on them last Tuesday at halftime before winning 6-1.

“We made a couple of adjustments, mostly in the center rotation,” Judd said. “It closed down the spacing they had in the first half.”

Chester County (9-6) accepted the changes made at halftime, and that resulted in a powerful second half.

The Eaglettes kept the attacking up for the first 30 minutes of the second half without allowing Sacred Heart a shot on goal.

Chester County finally got results for its hard work in the 65th minute when freshman Anslee West brought the ball into the box and passed to to the middle as Sacred Heart goalkeeper Lauren Crowe came off her line. Senior Talia Hinson took the pass and tied the game in an open net.

“I feel like going into halftime down was a wake-up call,” Hinson said. “We have either been blown out of games or won big. Tonight was just a desire and hunger to win.”

Five minutes later, the game-winner came as sophomore Paige Pipkin put a header toward goal that bounced off of the crossbar, but deflected off of a Sacred Heart player into the goal.

The Lady Knights had chances to tie it up after that but couldn’t get an answer.

Crowe came off of her line multiple times in the second to make some big saves and finished with nine saves.

Chester County opened the scoring quickly as sophomore Lauren Austin scored 20 seconds into the match, but Sacred Heart responded with goals in the 33rd and 36th minute by junior Anna Easley and junior Emily Whitaker to take a 2-1 lead going into halftime.

“It goes back to what we want to do,” Judd said. “We tied it up and went ahead in the second half and kept the pressure up.

“In the first half, we went up 1-0, and there was no sense of urgency.”

Chester County played University School of Jackson Monday night and plays Madison on Thursday.

“USJ was a tough loss, but I feel like today’s win was a confidence booster,” Hinson said. “I think we are back ready to go.”

Michael Odom, 425-9754